Adjustable wig form

ABSTRACT

This disclosure relates to an adjustable wig form approximately simulating a human head for use in styling and drying wigs. The structure for the wig form comprises a hollow housing provided with an expandable brow portion, a set of crown pieces for fitting on the upper end of said housing, and a set of head enlarging attachments for the back of the housing. The housing can be adjusted and fitted with a selected one of the crown pieces and enlarging attachments to accomodate any wig size. The wig form is constructed of a multi-layer wire screen fabric formed of a single sheet of fine mesh screen.

Ullltfid States Patent 1 [111 3,709,407 Sanford 1 Jan. 9, 1973 [54] ADJUSTABLE WIG FORM Primary Examiner-Jordan Franklin [76] Inventor: Jack C. Sanford, 125 West Assistant Examiner-'6' Larkm Aeroplane Boulevard, Big Bear Attorney-Vernon D. Beehler et al.

City, Calif. 92314 5 A STRA T [22] Filed: Dec. 8, 1971 t 7] B c Appl. N0.: 205,899

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8/1969 Hensley ..223/66 4/1972 Russ ..223/66 This disclosure relates to an adjustable wig form approximately simulating a human head for use in styling and drying wigs. The structure for the wig form comprises a hollow housing provided with an expandable brow portion, a set of crown pieces for fitting on the upper end of said housing, and a set of head enlarging attachments for the back of the housing. The housing can be adjusted and fitted with a selected one of the crown pieces and enlarging attachments to accomodate any wig size. The wig form is constructed of a multi-layer wire screen fabric formed of a single sheet of fine mesh screen.

7 Claims, 8 Drawing Figures PATENTEDJAN ems 3.703407 SHEET 2 [1F 2 f/v vsA/roz (1276K C. GPA/F020 ADJUSTABLE WIG FORM This invention relates to structures for use in wig styling and drying and more particularly to an adjustable wig form structure which can be expanded and enlarged to provide a full compliment of wig form sizes.

In the art of wig making it is customary to provide a wig form simulating a human head on which a wig can be mounted and held by pins while being shaped, dressed, combed or otherwise treated. Inasmuch as the size and shape of the head vary from person to person, it has been the practice in the past for wig makers to maintain and store a number of different size wig forms to accommodate thestyling of all the different size wigs required.

The adjustable wig form structure of the present invention includes a single hollow housing provided with an expandable brow portion, together with a set of crown pieces and a set of enlarging attachments. By securing selected ones of the crown pieces and enlarging attachments to the respective. top and back of the single housing, all the different size and shape wig forms usually required by a wig maker in the styling of wigs can be provided. In accordance with the present invention, since only the top and back portions of the wig form have to be changed in order to obtain all the different size wig forms, less material is required than when a separate full wig form is provided for each of the different sizes. Furthermore inasmuch as each of these top and back portions are similarly shaped, varying only in their incremental sizes, they can be easily nested one within the other when not being used. Thus, the resulting overall wig form structure of the present invention is not only economical but also has the advantage of requiring less storage space. The present invention further provides a fabric comprising a novel, multilayer formation of a single sheet of fine open wire mesh screen for constructing the wig form structure. Such an open construction is highly desirable since it permits air to be circulated through the wig for drying purposes while at the same time the multilayer formation enables wig pins to be inserted at any angle into the wig form and held rigidly and securely until they are removed by hand.

Accordingly it is an object of the invention to provide an adjustable wig form structure which can be used to style wigs for a variety of different size and shaped heads.

Another object of the invention is to provide a new and improved wig form structure for use in wig styling which obviates the need of constructing and storing a number of different full size wig forms by employing sets of incremental size wig form portions which can be selectively used to enlarge a basic adjustable wig form housing in order to accommodate the variety of sizes and shapes of human heads being simulated.

Another object of the invention is to provide a wig form structure which reduces the amount of material and accordingly the cost of providing a full compliment of wig form sizes in that portions only of a basic expandable wig form housing structure need be changed in order to provide the different size and shape wig forms needed to style wigs.

Another object of the invention is to provide a novel formation of multi-layer wire screen mesh or fabric for use in the construction ofa wig form structure.

With these and other objects in view, the invention consists in the construction, arrangement and combination of the various parts of the device, whereby the objects contemplated are attained, as hereinafter set forth, pointed out in the appended claims and illustrated in the accompanied drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is an exploded view of the parts of the structure used in forming the wig form of the invention including a suitable mounting therefor;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the: housing of the wig form shown with its brow portion in its expanded position;

FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of an enlarging attachment for the back of the head portion of the wig form;

FIG. 4 is a rear elevational view of the enlarging attachment of FIG. 3;

FIG. 5 is a top view of the enlarging attachment of FIG. 3;

FIG. 6 is an assembled view of the wig form structure shown in FIG. 2;

FIG. 7 is a cross section of a fragmentary portion of a wire screen mesh as viewed during an intermediate step of its formation into a multi-layer fabric; and

FIG. 8 is across section of a fragmentary portion of the multi-layer fabric used for constructing the wig form structure as taken in the direction of arrows 8-8 in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 1 of the drawings, an exploded view of the parts comprising the adjustable wig form 10 of the present invention is shown. These parts include an expandable hollow housing 11, a crown piece 26 which is one of a set of different size crown pieces for fitting on the upper end of the housing 11, and an enlarging attachment 29 which is one of a set of different size attachments for being positioned and secured onto the back of the housing 11. The parts comprising the adjustable wig form 10 in FIG. 1 are shown assembled together'in FIG. 6.

As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, the housing II is provided with a top portion I2 simulating the brow of the human head, aback portion 13 simulating the back of the human head, and a bottom portion I4 simulating the neck of a human. The housing II is constructed with an open face which extends through the brow portion 12 and gradually curves inwardly through the bottom portion 13 of the housing. A metal neck band 17 is provided at the base of the housing 11. The bottom of the neck portion 14 of the housing II is firmly attached to the back of the neck band 17 such as to encompass approximately one thirdof its circumference. The diameter of the neck band 17 remains constant. However, the diameter of the brow portion 12 of the housing II is expandable from about I) inches to 24 inches. The expansion and contraction of the diameter of the brow portion I2 is accomplished by opening and closing a hinge 20 located in the center of the brow portion 12. Hinge 20 comprises side plates 21 and 22 having their inner ends joined by a pin 19 and their respective outer ends secured by welding to the edges of the open sides 23 and 24 of the brow portion 12 of the wig housing II. The hinge 20 is made adjustable by a knurled knob 25 that is positioned on the lower end of the pin I9 for easy manipulation by hand through the open face 15. The pin 19 may have a threaded connection to one of the side plates such that when it is loosened it permits the side plates 21 and 22 to be-positioned relative to each other to provide a desired brow diameter. Tightening of the knob 25 then provides for locking the plates of hinge 20 in the set position. The housing 11 is shown in FIG. 1 with its brow portion 12 contracted by hinge 20 to form a relatively small diameter size wig form and is shown in FIG. 2 with its brow portion 12 expanded by hinge 20 to form a relatively large diameter size wig form.

The housing 11 is constructed ofa multi-layer formation of a fine wire mesh, such as a No. 20 open wire mesh, in accordance with the showings and descriptions to be hereinafter made in connection with FIGS. 7 and 8. The open wire mesh is especially constructed into a multi-layer fabric such that conventional wig pins 42 used by wigmakers for holding a wig on the form 10 will be capable of easy penetration through the layers of the open wire mesh but will be provided with a firm grip in that once in place they will not work out until finally removed by hand.

Reference will next be made to crown piece 26 which fits over the upper end of the housing 11 and simulates the top of the human head. The crown piece 26 shown in FIG. 1 is one ofa set that has been selected to fit over the brow portion 12 of housing 11 when it is adjusted by hinge to have a relatively small brow diameter. Thus the wig form structure of the present invention comprises other crown pieces 26 which fit over the brow portion 12 of housing 11 when it is incrementally set to larger diameter sizes. The crown piece 26 is formed with a suitable flat bead 28 on the circumferential rim thereof which is made to tightly fit on the rim oftop portion 12 of housing 11, as shown in FIG. 6. The crown piece 26 is provided with a tab 27 on the front thereof which fits in the gap formed by the spaced sides 23 and 24 of the top brow portion 12 of the housing 1] and extends down into the opening formed by face 15. The tab 27 serves to locate the crown piece 26 on the housing 11 and also provides a pinning surface for hangs on the front of the wig form. It should be noted that the crown piece 26 and tab 27 are preferably formed of the same multi-layer formation of No. 20 wire screen mesh used to construct the housing 11 to be described in connection with FIG. 8.

Next to be described is the enlarging attachment 29. The attachment 29 is formed of a screen mesh having a thin sheet metal band 30 crimped around the exterior edges thereof to contain the sharp ends of the screen. As shown in FlGs. l and 6, the attachment 29 is positioned and secured by conventional wig pins 42 (FIG. 8) onto the back portion l3 of the housing II to increase the size of the diameter of the wig form around the brow portion l2 of housing II and to enlarge the back of the head portion I3 down to the lower neck portion I4. It should be understood that attachment 29 comes in various sizes to match the brow diameter setting of the housing II and the different size crown pieces 26. Thus, the smaller size attachment 29, shown in FIG. 6, is used on the housing 11 when the latter is set by hinge 20 to have a relatively small brow diameter. It should be noted that in this case attachment 29 does not extend very far about the sides of the housing 11 and furthermore its curvature is not very full inasmuch as it does not have to provide a very large increase of the brow diameter. However, as illustrated in FIGS. 3, 4, and 5, when the housing 11, indicated by dash lines, is set by the opening of hinge 20 to have a large brow diameter, the larger size attachment 29 embraces a larger portion of the circumference of the wig form housing 11, as best illustrated in FIG. 5. In addition, the attachment 29 extends further up on the crown piece 26 and further down on the neck portion 14 of the housing 11. Moreover, the curvature and fullness of the attachment 29 is, in this instance, made greater in keeping with larger head size.

In view of the above it should now be clear that inasmuch as a full compliment of wig form sizes entails sizes from approximately 19 inches to 24 inches, in half inch size variations, a set of conventional wig forms may comprise as many as eleven different wig form structures. However, by the combined use of the single expandable wig form housing ll herein disclosed along with a number of different size crown pieces 26 and a number of different size attachments 29, the single expandable wig form housing 11 can be enlarged to accommodate all eleven sizes. As an example, the use of one crown piece 26 can be combined with the use of two attachments 29 wherein one of the attachments provide for increasing the size of the wig form housing ll by one half size and the other attachment provides for increasing the size of the wig form housing 11 by one full size. With such an arrangement, as few as four such crown pieces 26 and eight such attachments 29 when combined with the single adjustable wig form housing 11 is sufficient to take care of all the sizes needed, thus cutting the cost and storage space for such wig form structures considerably.

Reference will next be made to FIGS. 6 and 7 to show the preferred formation of the multi-layer open wire mesh or fabric used to construct the wig form structure of the present invention. It should be particularly noted that the open wire fabric must accept and secure the wig pins 42 used in mounting and shaping the wig during its construction and dressing. In order to meet this requirement, the open wire fabric is formed such that its cross-section comprises three layers of fine mesh. The first step in the formation of the open wire fabric is to shape a single sheet of No. 20 mesh screen 43 into small accordion-like folds forming loops 45, as shown in FIG. 7. The points 46 where the walls of the adjacent loops touch are then spot welded. The loop structure so formed is then flattened out, as shown in FIG. 8, which is a cross-section of the screen fabric taken, for example, in the direction of arrows 8-8 of FIG. 1. Note that the flattened loops 45 are much longer than the thickness of the multi-laycr mesh so formed. Furthermore, the upper and lower flattened loops 45 overlap each other such that the open wire mesh structure so formed effectively provides three layers of mesh and the welded points 46 where the walls of adjacent loops touch provide a relatively stiff inner structure which gives the fabric rigidity and stability. The three layers of fine mesh screen 43 enable the wig pins 42 to be inserted into the fabric at any an gle, and to be held securely and rigidly because of the random pattern of the holes in the layers of fine mesh screen. Thus the pins 42 have a frictional engagement with each of the three layers of the screen mesh when directed therethrough but at the same time can be readily withdrawn by being pulled out by the hand. Note further that the assembled wig form of the present invention moreover provides an open bottom as well as an open mesh construction so that when one or more of the wig forms 10 are placed on a dryer dehumidified and filtered air can pass into and through the forms.

From the forgoing it will be clear that the multi-layer open mesh construction of the wig form herein disclosed has a multiple purpose, namely that of providing effective pinning ofa wig to the form 10 while the wig is being dressed, combed or otherwise treated, and further providing for a very effective drying of the wig on the form once it is completely dressed.

Since the enlarged attachment 29 is attached to the back portion 13 of the housing 11, it differs from the crown piece 26 in that it can be made of a single thickness of No. 18 wire mesh screen, for example, which is a coarser screen than that used to form the crown piece 26. The attachment 29 need not be made of a multi-layer open mesh fabric which will retain the wig pins, since it is attached to the back of the housing ll which is made of such a material. Thus, the wig pins 42 are ofsuch a length that upon being inserted into the attachment 29 they will extend on into the housing 11 and be frictionally held by the three layers of mesh from which it is formed.

In order to facilitate the wig maker in manipulating the wig on the form 10, as shown in FIGS. 1 and 6, a hollow vertical cone 32 is provided on a table 34 with its base end in a down position. As best shown in FIG. 6, the neck band 17 is centered over the base of cone 32 with the upper portion of the cone 32 extending into the hollow neck portion 13 of the housing 11. The neck band 17 is positioned flush on table 34 and engaged by three clamps 36 each comprising a hinged vertical member 38 having a U-shaped end which fits over the neck band 17. By advancing thumb screws 39, on each of the clamps 36, the members 38 are held in an upright position, thus locking the neck band 17 in position.

While the invention has herein been shown and described in what is conceived to be a practical and effective embodiment, it is recognized that departures may be made therefrom within the scope of the inven' tion, which is not to be limited to the details disclosed herein but is to be accorded the full scope of the claims so as to embrace any and all equivalent devices.

Having described the invention, what is claimed as new in support of Letters Patent is:

1. An adjustable wig form structure for wig styling comprising: a hollow housing having an open face and having portions simulating the brow, the back and the neck of a human head; adjusting means for adjusting the diameter of the brow portion of said housing; a set of crown pieces, each having a different incremental size; and a set of enlargement attachments, each having a different incremental size; wherein the diameter of the brow portion of said housing is set by said adjusting means and selected ones of said crown pieces and enlarging attachments are respectively fitted on the brow and back portions of said housing to provide a desired size wig form.

2. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the material used to construct at least said housing and said crown pieces consists of a multi-layer open wire mesh fabric.

3. The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein said multi-layer open wire mesh fabric consists of overlapping flattened loops formed from a single sheet of open wire mesh with the sides of adjacent loops anchored in metal to metal engagement, said flattened loops effectively providing three layers of said mesh to enable pins to penetrate therethrough and be gripped during the mounting of a wig on said form.

4. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the lower end of the neck portion of said housing is provided with a metal neck band.

5. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein each said crown piece is provided with a tab, and wherein said crown piece is fitted on the brow portion with said tab extending down into the open face of said housing.

6. The invention in accordance with claim 4 includ' ing a mounting device for said wig form, said mounting device including a cone with the base end down and on which the neck band of the housing is centered, and further including clamps positioned about the base end of said cone for securing said neck band in position.

7. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the open face of said housing extends through the brow portion, wherein said adjusting means for adjusting the diameter of the brow portion of said housing includes a hinge having side plates, said hinge being positioned in the center of the brow portion of the housing and having its respective side plates connected to the respec tive side edges of the opening in the brow portion, and means for fixing said hinge in position after its side plates have been adjusted to provide said brow portion with a desired diameter. 

1. An adjustable wig form structure for wig styling comprising: a hollow housing having an open face and having portions simulating the brow, the back and the neck of a human head; adjusting means for adjusting the diameter of the brow portion of said housing; a set of crown pieces, each having a different incremental size; and a set of enlargement attachments, each having a different incremental size; wherein the diameter of the brow portion of said housing is set by said adjusting means and selected ones of said crown pieces and enlarging attachments are respectively fitted on the brow and back portions of said housing to provide a desired size wig form.
 2. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the material used to construct at least said housing and said crown pieces consists of a multi-layer open wire mesh fabric.
 3. The invention in accordance with claim 2 wherein said multi-layer open wire mesh fabric consists of overlapping flattened loops formed from a single sheet of open wire mesh with the sides of adjacent loops anchored in metal to metal engagement, said flattened loops effectively providing three layers of said mesh to enable pins to penetrate therethrough and be gripped during the mounting of a wig on said form.
 4. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the lower end of the neck portion of said housing is provided with a metal neck band.
 5. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein each said crown piece is provided with a tab, and wherein said crown piece is fitted on the brow portion with said tab extending down into the open face of said housing.
 6. The invention in accordance with claim 4 including a mounting device for said wig form, said mounting device including a cone with the base end down and on which the neck band of the housing is centered, and further including clamps positioned about the base end of said cone for securing said neck band in position.
 7. The invention in accordance with claim 1 wherein the open face of said housing extends through the brow portion, wherein said adjusting means for adjusting the diameter of the brow portion of said housing includes a hinge having side plates, said hinge being positioned in the center of the brow portion of the housing and having its respective side plates connected to the respective side edges of the opening in the brow portion, and means for fixing said hinge in position after its side plates have been adjusted to provide said brow portion with a desired diameter. 